good representation of real
dials, with perhaps just a
drop of your favourite clear
varnish to replicate glass.
I decided to leave
the etched replacement
head-up display units (HUDs)
until later, contenting myself
at this “destruction” stage
by removing the moulded
brackets on the coaming.
After installing the instrument
panels and the rear coaming,
but not the internal windscreen
between the cockpits, the last
job was to get the black paint
out and use it on the sticks,
paint in some detail, and add
a thin wash in the throttle
quadrants and lower corners.OUTSIDE THE “OFFICE”
While waiting for various paints
to dry and glues to set, I carried
on with a few sub-assemblies. All
three fins were assembled and the
nose cone (non-laser) and tailpiece
halves fitted to each fuselage half. I
also built up and installed the nose
wheel and main wheel/airbrake
bay. The fit boded well for the rest
of the build, but the airbrake bay/
fuselage joint benefitted from a
scrap of card to strengthen it.
The only place I found any
problems with fit was with the
intakes. Each is made up of two
parts, giving the modeller the
option of depicting the upper blow-
in doors open (as with the aircraftparked) or all the doors shut. Not
only was there a noticeable seam
where the two parts of each intake
joined, but there were several
ejector pin marks on the doors. The
poor fit may perhaps have been my
fault, but not the pin marks, but in
both cases some filler was needed.
Step 6 requires you to cut
the main ducting “bell” in
half; unfortunately, there is no
indication of where to cut so I used
L28 as a guide. I then fitted Parts
L27 and L28 into the starboard and
port fuselage halves respectively.
Be aware that the instructions mix
left and right, labelling L28 as “R”
despite it clearly being drawn fitting
in the port half. As we will see later,
making sure the fit is correct at this
stage is essential, as it will affect
the fit of the intakes later if it is not.
I also built up the swivel
mechanism for the nozzles as
shown in Stage 5. This caused mea moment of panic when I came to
Stage 7, because I realised that the
mounts for the exhaust nozzles
(Parts D16 and E21) were drawn the
opposite way round to how I’d fitted
them. I checked back and found that
I had built them as shown in Stage 5,
but the drawings for the two stages
were different! A quick test fit
showed that Stage 5 is correct, and
Stage 7 depicts them wrongly. Stage
7 also appears to show that the
swivel mechanism attaches to the
main undercarriage bay – it doesn’t.
The Eduard exterior detail set
includes internal detail for both
the airbrake and undercarriage
bays. The detail for the former
consists of shaped pieces which
fit within the sections of the bay,
and they do improve the look of
this area. The undercarriage bay
detail includes an item for the
rear bulkhead, which is a complex
folding job. I did include this (I
need the practice of folding and
installing etched pieces), but as the
main undercarriage door is usually
closed on the ground, you may want
to omit it: I certainly left out the
other undercarriage bay items.
A pair of etched blast plates
requires you to cut off the
equivalent area of the kit Parts L
and L20. Eduard suggests making
the characteristic corrugations
in the etch using a ballpoint
pen: it works. I found the easiest
way to attach these plates to
the rear of the kit parts was toFront cockpit
nearing completionWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • OCTOBER 2018 • 17
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